WORLD ASSEMBLY OF URBAN INHABITANTS

Make our voices heard
Rethinking the city from the grassroots

Mexico City, 2-6 October 2000

Workshop: Collective Ideal
(Spanish-only group)

Within the frame of the World Assembly of Urban Inhabitants, the workshop on "the collective ideal" initiated on 3 October in the Casa de la Primera Imprenta, with the participation of 22 delegates from Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brasil, El Salvador and Mexico.

The following six documents (in Spanish) were read to provide the starting point for the debate:

* The Jalapa Declaration, July 2000, product of the Mexican national preparatory meeting
* Towards building a collective ideal, by Enrique Ortiz
* Livable City/ Building a collective imagination, UCISV-VER
* Building a collective ideal, Solidarity Network of Autonomous Communities of Venezuela
* Contribution to a gender perspective, by Women for Dialogue
* The rescue of the social debts, by Helio Gallard

Distinct conceptions for the building of a collective ideal were integrated during the debate. The concept was understood by some as a "dream", as that objective that we as urban inhabitants aim to reach. To achieve it we must work to try to waken people, that they know their rights. We can only make the ideal reality if we all join forces.

It was also mentioned that building a collective ideal is the dream that organized inhabitants from throughout the world can make reality, because only through organizing ourselves can we undertake development projects.

Some spoke of building the ideal through power, indicating that our organizations should manage themselves under a common code, looking towards world integration, as one homeland.

To achieve the utopia of the ideal we must have clear that we are a collective, and that to confront our own needs we must wake up to collective life, understanding that alone we can not. Only then, when we are located in our ideal, will we be able to think in democracy, in that which speaks to us of communitary participation.

The collective ideal is built through what people think, by sharing objectives and needs through a solidarity unification, allowing all of those who never do so to express themselves. Also through fighting for a world where wealth is not concentrated in a few but benefits the immense majority, and assigning social power to the excluded.

It is precisely in the building of a collective ideal that we look to reweave the social fabric through approaching the community to know if the concept they have of the ideal is the same as we share. In this way we recognize ourselves in our diversity and differences.

As social leaders we should understand that we do not have the solution to all the problems of our communities, and that it is not through a paternalistic attitude that the ideal is built. Rather we must ask ourselves if we, having power, know how to exercise it, and if we can direct the development of the collectives. We must understand that it will only be possible with the education and organization of the bases in the search for an equitable world, raising consciousness about the rights we have as citizens and where we can all undertake our roles in an igalitarian way.

In this way, a list of key concepts was obtained to be worked on in the elaboration of our own strategies to be implemented in our diverse communities for the building of a collective ideal:

* Organization
* Consciousness-building
* Inclusion and equity
* Building an ideal through transforming thought
* Community organization promoted via development projects and the preparation of social promoters
* Training
* Teaching
* Undertaking strategies to reach people
* Create reflection spaces
* Establish concrete goals to achieve a greater objective
* Prioritize goals
* Share and socialize information through dialogue
* Re-think organization with consciousness
* Build an ideal from the people
* Build decision-making instruments
* Transform consciousnesses
* Eliminate verticle structures in popular organizations
* Grow through popular power
* Participation and collective living
* Ethics
* Formation of a collective ideal in a changing world

Drafting Team: Cristina Almazán, Teolinda Bolívar, Yolanda Feria